Friday, December 23, 2005
Tickets and Friendlies
Once the draw was made on the 9th, tickets was the first thing a lot of people thought about, except many of us who are guaranteed tickets. We got straight into action, if you recall, booking flights and hotels.
The location of this World Cup has definitely had an influence on demand. Germany is fairly easy to get to from all over the world and Europe is a hotbed of football. As always, it's a nightmare trying to get hold of tickets for England matches, I do feel sorry for fans of teams drawn against us as there is always a huge number of England fans who are prepared to pay over the odds. The problem for us is, the touts know this and take huge advantage of it.
The official England fans club has 25,000 members but FIFA have decided to allocated each team just 8% of stadium capacity. We will get around 3,500 tickets for each of our group matches. Now, it doesn't take a marketing expert to realise that demand will easily outstrip supply especially when you consider in recent away games, there were 5,000 England fans in Demark and in the region of 15,000 in Geneva when we faced Argentina - and those were friendly matches.
A quick 'Google' (is that a verb now ?) for "England World Cup Tickets" brings up 3.28m websites. A visit to the first one (I won't advertise it) reveals they are offering a Â45 ticket for England v Trinidad and Tobago for $895. The cheapest I could see was Iran v Angola for $139. A Cat 1 for the final, face value Â600 is on sale for $5,750. Quite simply, regardless of what FIFA say, they are allowing this practice to happen. These prices are criminally high and many genuine supporters for all countries will miss out on seeing games.
Other England fans without tickets I have spoken to, fully expect to have to pay £300-500 per game in the group matches and prices will increase as the tournament progresses. Thankfully, our supporters club have a system in place to reward supporters who hatraveledled around watching friendlies and qualifying matches. Supporters who have been to more games will have priority on tickets. To my knowledge, all other competing teams are just having ballots for all applications regardless if they have been to a game before or not.
And so onto out the build up. 3 friendly matches are planned prior to the tournament and the FA confirmed the first of these earlier today. Hungary will be the first team to play at the new Wembley on Tuesday 30th May. Back in November 1963, the 'Magnificent Magyars' were the first visiting team to beat England at home, the score was 6-3. Personally, I can't wait to see England playing at the new Wembley. From the outside, the stadium looks awesome with the 133m high high dominating the skyline for miles.
The remaining 2 fixtures are still to be confirmed. There will be a home game on 1st March, rumoured to be at Anfield against Uruguay. The other fixture is almost certainly going to be against Caribbeanean team, this time rumoured to be Jamaica.
The location of this World Cup has definitely had an influence on demand. Germany is fairly easy to get to from all over the world and Europe is a hotbed of football. As always, it's a nightmare trying to get hold of tickets for England matches, I do feel sorry for fans of teams drawn against us as there is always a huge number of England fans who are prepared to pay over the odds. The problem for us is, the touts know this and take huge advantage of it.
The official England fans club has 25,000 members but FIFA have decided to allocated each team just 8% of stadium capacity. We will get around 3,500 tickets for each of our group matches. Now, it doesn't take a marketing expert to realise that demand will easily outstrip supply especially when you consider in recent away games, there were 5,000 England fans in Demark and in the region of 15,000 in Geneva when we faced Argentina - and those were friendly matches.
A quick 'Google' (is that a verb now ?) for "England World Cup Tickets" brings up 3.28m websites. A visit to the first one (I won't advertise it) reveals they are offering a Â45 ticket for England v Trinidad and Tobago for $895. The cheapest I could see was Iran v Angola for $139. A Cat 1 for the final, face value Â600 is on sale for $5,750. Quite simply, regardless of what FIFA say, they are allowing this practice to happen. These prices are criminally high and many genuine supporters for all countries will miss out on seeing games.
Other England fans without tickets I have spoken to, fully expect to have to pay £300-500 per game in the group matches and prices will increase as the tournament progresses. Thankfully, our supporters club have a system in place to reward supporters who hatraveledled around watching friendlies and qualifying matches. Supporters who have been to more games will have priority on tickets. To my knowledge, all other competing teams are just having ballots for all applications regardless if they have been to a game before or not.
And so onto out the build up. 3 friendly matches are planned prior to the tournament and the FA confirmed the first of these earlier today. Hungary will be the first team to play at the new Wembley on Tuesday 30th May. Back in November 1963, the 'Magnificent Magyars' were the first visiting team to beat England at home, the score was 6-3. Personally, I can't wait to see England playing at the new Wembley. From the outside, the stadium looks awesome with the 133m high high dominating the skyline for miles.
The remaining 2 fixtures are still to be confirmed. There will be a home game on 1st March, rumoured to be at Anfield against Uruguay. The other fixture is almost certainly going to be against Caribbeanean team, this time rumoured to be Jamaica.
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Last night, the draw for the groups for the World Cup was drawn in Leipzig. While TV viewers were letching of the gorgeous Heidi Klum who was making the draw, England supporters planning to make the trip to Germany next summer didn't have time for all that. Due to the large numbers of supporters who follow England everywhere, we are seen as a cashcow for airlines and hotels who maximise their profits from the fact that demand always exceeds supply when England are involved. So I thought I'd share my evening of hard work with you.
We knew last Tuesday that England would be a top seed in the group and that the would also been Team 1. This was important as it meant that as soon as we knew which group we were in, we would also know our fixtures. So the travel plans were underway. Spreadsheets were drawn up listing all the dates locations for Team 1 in every group. Groups A and F had already been allocated to Germany and Brazil so our choices were narrowed down to 1 of 6 sets of fixtures.
The time between Tuesday and the draw was spent working out flight options and possible hotels. The theory was that once we knew which group we would be playing in, we would know exactly what we needed to book. Another factor in the equation is that many fans who meet up for games, don't live anywhere near each other so contact had to be kept with each other as well to see which hotels were being reserved. Thank god for Skype and MSN Messenger !!!!
So Friday night came around and I was set. I had my 3 credit cards in front of me, a list of fixtures and selected flights. I had 8 internet sessions open ready to search for flights and hotels. I was also online to friends. I was watching the draw on Sky Sports News and we were told things would start at 20 past the hour. The anticipation grew but still nothing. The FIFA officials were far too interested in the sounds of their own voices and it was another 20 minutes before the draw started.
The draw procedure dictated that the seeding teams would be allocated into their groups first. The draw started. The teams would go into the available pots in order B, C, D, E, G, H. First team out was.......ENGLAND. For a second, the world stopped. It was the calm before the storm. Then I got a message appear on my screen from one of my friends. It simply said "b1". Of course it should have been "B1" with a capital letter but this was no time to correct his English. All hell was unleashed via internet terminal all over the place. We would be playing in Frankfurt on 10th June, Nuremberg on 15th June and finally Cologne on 20th June. The opposition was irrelevant. We'd be there regardless. Immediately I went for Frankfurt hotels. The cheap prices seemed to be there but every one I chose showed no rooms left. How could this be happening? Could so many people be typing quicker than me?
I gave up on Hotels.com, nothing available and went onto another site. Eventually, I found a hotel with rooms but it was £125 a night. No matter, book it and move on. Nuremberg was next on the list and this was the first real nightmare. I couldn't find a hotel with rooms anywhere. 6 hotel websites turned up nothing. Meanwhile, the draw was still going on but my friends and I were oblivious. I was getting text messages from other friends telling me what was happening but I ignored them. There was no time. The Nuremberg situation was a concern. By now, I was on the phone to one of my friends. He was struggling with flights on the low budget airlines. I told him I couldn't find Nuremberg hotels, he in turn, told another friend who started looking. I moved onto Cologne hotels and this was better. Fairly quickly, I got rooms for Â110 a night. I would btravelingng to Germany from Denmark so luckily for me, flights were easy. I quickly booked up Frankfurt and Cologne for £100 each.
Meanwhile, my friends were having their own problems. Some were booking on the low cost airlines and coming back from Germany at 4:15am the morning after the game. No hotels needed for that night, just stay out drinking all night and go straight to the airport. Not a bad idea but not my style. Another friend was watching prices for flights change in front of his eyes. Time was moving on and I took a few seconds to see who we would be playing. Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago....and Sweden. Got to be happy with that but Sweden. What is it about them. We play them all the time and just can't seem to beat them. It's been 37 years but maybe 2006 will be our year.
Sweden's position in the group meant we'd meet in the final game in Cologne. If all goes to plan, both teams will have qualified by then. Our opponents will be from Group A, Germany's group. The Group A games will be finished during the afternoon so when we play Sweden, we'll know our opponents based on finishing 1st or 2nd.
But back to hotels. I still hadn't got anything booked. Then I get a website and they have rooms. Soon, I've got rooms near the centre of Nuremberg for €90 a night. Outstanding and a quick visit to Opodo and the Nuremberg flight was soon confirmed. Job done - flights and hotels all booked, total cost £800
So I finally relaxed, feeling rather smug. I checked the time, it had been 4 hours since the draw was made. How could booking flights be such hard work !!! One of my friends said he was staying in Munich for the Last 16 match. Our game will be there or Stuttgart which is a short train ride. Another £100 for a flight to Munich and that's about as much as could be done.
Sound hard word ? Yes
Are we mad for going through all this ? Yes
Was it worth it ? Yes
Today, I looked the prices for Cologne where we will play Sweden. Flying from Copenhagen which is right next to Sweden, the price had double to £250. I guess that justified the night of booking madness.
Thank god I'm guaranteed match tickets.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
World Cup seedings for Friday
FIFA never cease to amaze me. After weeks of concern (mainly in the press) that England wouldn't be seeded, it turned out that we have been seeded only 2nd to Brazil. England will be one of 8 seeds, the others are Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Italy, Mexico and France. The USA missed out on being seeded by a single point. The exact formula for seedings has been kept a secret but the important thing is that England are seeded. The only thing for certain is that we will face another European side.
As most things to do with FIFA, there is a curious aspect to the draw. Germany have already been allocated as team A1 and will take part in the opening game. However, Brazil have also been allocated into group F. As yet, I have found no explanation for this but looking at the structure of the competition, Germany and Brazil will not face each other until the final, assuming both sides get there. Given the controversial circumstances that surrounded the award of the 2006 competition to Germany in the first place, you could be forgiven for being suspicious about Brazil being put into group F before the draw.
For a full explanation of the draw on Friday, have a look at this fantastic website. Feel free to have a bet by joining one of the bookies via the advert (blatant marketing plug)
Meanwhile, England fans are talking more and more about tickets. Quite clearly, demand will far outstrip supply. There are 25,000 members of the official travel club but allocations in the stadia could be under 3,000. A loyalty program is in place for supporters in which we earn 'caps' for games we go to. 1 cap for home games and 2 for away games. 70% of the tickets for each game go to 'top-cappers' and the remaining 30% are awarded on the result of a ballot. The official FIFA allocation for each country taking part in a game is 8% of stadium capacity. Both the FA and Minister of Sport have made approaches to try to secure more tickets for supporters but with FIFA seemingly more interested in looking after sponsors and corporate customers than genuine fans, we don't hold out much. Personally speaking, I have enough caps to guarantee me tickets for every game.
So now we wait for Friday's draw.
As most things to do with FIFA, there is a curious aspect to the draw. Germany have already been allocated as team A1 and will take part in the opening game. However, Brazil have also been allocated into group F. As yet, I have found no explanation for this but looking at the structure of the competition, Germany and Brazil will not face each other until the final, assuming both sides get there. Given the controversial circumstances that surrounded the award of the 2006 competition to Germany in the first place, you could be forgiven for being suspicious about Brazil being put into group F before the draw.
For a full explanation of the draw on Friday, have a look at this fantastic website. Feel free to have a bet by joining one of the bookies via the advert (blatant marketing plug)
Meanwhile, England fans are talking more and more about tickets. Quite clearly, demand will far outstrip supply. There are 25,000 members of the official travel club but allocations in the stadia could be under 3,000. A loyalty program is in place for supporters in which we earn 'caps' for games we go to. 1 cap for home games and 2 for away games. 70% of the tickets for each game go to 'top-cappers' and the remaining 30% are awarded on the result of a ballot. The official FIFA allocation for each country taking part in a game is 8% of stadium capacity. Both the FA and Minister of Sport have made approaches to try to secure more tickets for supporters but with FIFA seemingly more interested in looking after sponsors and corporate customers than genuine fans, we don't hold out much. Personally speaking, I have enough caps to guarantee me tickets for every game.
So now we wait for Friday's draw.
